Rich Benjamin

New York Times columnist David Brooks once wrote a very funny appraisal of Seattles smug conformity in Bobos in Paradise. Now, like a younger, blacker David Brooks, think-tank scholar Rich Benjamin ventures among the insular Caucasian tribe in Searching for Whitopia (Hyperion, $24.99). He begins his three-month residencies in Idaho, Georgia, and Utah with a demographic hook: exurban and rural communities that are 90 percent white (or higher), and whose rapid population growth is coming mainly from non-Hispanic whites. Also: by 2042, according the U.S. Census, non-Hispanic whites will be a minority in this country. So what does it mean that these ethnic redoubts cling to their notions of majority tradition and values? Benjamin proves a surprisingly affable, Brooksian tour guide through Whitopia. Hes equally nice to evangelicals and Republicans, even while tut-tutting their looming obsolescence. In rural Whitopias, like the Idaho panhandle, locals can hardly afford to live in whats becoming an Aspenized resort economy. In exurban Whitopias, the cost of commuting and housinghello, subprime mortgage crisismay also prove unsupportable. Yet Benjamin, who enjoys golf and poker parties, isnt one to gloat. His tone seems almost pitying in regard to these holdouts. And his index lists our states whitest region (at 91 percent), Jefferson County, in case youre thinking of relocating to Port Townsend. BRIAN MILLER